JUNE

How did 'Mister' get to be a title of address?

Well let's see, Mister is shorter than "hey, you," and Mr. is shorter still. And I don't know about you, but there are very few guys I feel like addressing as "your lordship."

While Mr. is common these days, it began as a term of respect, coming to us from two sources. "Master" as a title evolved into mister to match the female title, "Mistress." Mister also developed as a title to set apart skilled workers, or artisans, from the peasantry and common laborers. Here it descends from the Latin, "ministerium," which meant craft or trade. Over the centuries, as it passed through the lips of enough mumblers and fast talkers, ministerium became mister.

By the way, the French Revolution sought to eliminate all special terms of address, replacing them with "Citizen." That really went too far. No sense losing your head over it.

Source: A BROWSER'S DICTIONARY by John Ciardi



Send it back to the kitchen

We think we know just what was the manna, or miraculous food, that the Israelites received in the wilderness. What the Bible refers to was probably lichen, scraped from rocks and mixed with water.

What a downer. I thought it was at the very least field greens with goat cheese dressed with balsamic vinaigrette.

Source: THE JOY OF TRIVIA by Bernie Smith



Didja Know...
In an amazing coincidence, the Sun and Moon appear to be the same size in the Earth's sky?
(Source: Encarta.com)

How does one become a circus clown?

The easiest way to become a clown is to come from a family of them. (Never mind the smartass remarks; you know I'm referring to professionals.) Barring that, you have to go to school to learn the basics. The Ringling Brothers Circus, biggest of the "big tops," runs a clown college, where you learn everything from juggling to how to paint your face to how to stand on your head. After graduating, you start at the bottom, with low pay.

Are you ready to do it? Not so fast. Competition to get in is fierce, and only 10 percent of the graduates are offered jobs. You have to have many kinds of physical skills and have a real knack for entertaining. It's not enough just to score high on the S. A. T. (Silly Attitude Test).

Source: JUST CURIOUS JEEVES



Didja Know...
The fear of the color white is called leukophobia?
(Source: Phobialist.com)

Why do we sometimes call someone with below average intelligence a moron?

As a kid, I thought it was because morons, too, had foolishly eaten my Aunt Emily's vegetable soup. The soup was so bland that I had to pour salt into it. She would just shake her head and mutter repeatedly, "pouring more on, more on?"

Then I discovered that moron was a word coined in 1910, before Emily was born. It seems that psychologists, never happy unless they can stick a label on someone, felt they needed a new word to describe people who were quite slow on the uptake. So, in that year, at the convention of The American Association for the Study of the Feeble Minded ("moron" did symbolize progress), the delegates went to work. Someone remembered that the French dramatist, Moliere, had written a play in which a stupid character was named Moron (ancient Greek for stupid was "moros"). Voila! Everyone went home happy. (Just remember what some folks say about ignorance being bliss...)

Source: WHY YOU SAY IT by Webb Garrison

Why do we associate Dalmatians with firemen?

I could imagine 101 different reasons. But lest anyone accuse me of dogging it, I've pawed through some reference sources to bring you a credible answer.

The answer is simple. The key facts are that there is a natural affinity between Dalmatians and horses, and Dalmatians make good watchdogs. People who owned valuable horses often kept Dalmatians around to guard them against horse thieves. Fire engines used to be drawn by fast and powerful horses, a tempting target for thieves. So, Dalmatians were kept in the firehouse as deterrence to theft. The horses have long since gone, but the Dalmatians, by tradition, have stayed.

Would you like an even simpler explanation? Firemen are often on the spot, while the spots are always on the Dalmatians.

Source: THE HANDY SCIENCE ANSWER BOOK compiled by The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh



Didja Know...
On the tv show 'The Simpsons,' Marge Simpson's bowling ball is named 'Homer?'
(Source: quizsite.com)

Why do we call a cheapskate a 'piker?'

Because such a person would rather go out of their way and, figuratively, climb Pikes Peak rather than pay their fair share of anything. How does that sound? I made it up, but the real origin of the word is somewhat similar.

'Piker' comes not from climbing but from walking. In the early nineteenth century, especially in the United States, turnpikes were being built everywhere as part of a revolution in transportation. Since it was not yet common for government to build such improvements, private companies often constructed them. Naturally, they did it for a profit, which they got by charging tolls on vehicles using their road. But if you were on foot, you didn't have to pay. People who walked from town to town to save the toll money were called 'pikers,' from the word "turnpike."

A pedestrian explanation, to be sure, but it's the truth.

Source: WHY YOU SAY IT by Webb Garrison



Didja Know...
'Frosted Flakes' spokesfeline Tony the Tiger has a son, Tony Jr. and a daughter, Antoinette?
(Source: Kelloggs.com)

Why do we call that children's game hopscotch?

Well if the kids played it on a tartan-design playing area, the name might be self -evident. But not only is that not the etymology, the origin of the name has nothing to do with any part of the British Isles.

The game - called scotch hoppers in the seventeenth century - - is played on squares cut into the ground or marked on pavement. The name was derived from the Old French word "escocher," which meant to cut or mark. It was anglicized to "scotch." From the same source, we get the expression, to "scotch a rumor." And butterscotch - didn't you ever wonder about that? - is simply butter-colored candy cut into squares.

Adults sometimes hop after drinking enough Scotch. They also giggle, guffaw, spin around and fall down. Great game!

Source: A BROWSER'S DICTIONARY by John Ciardi



Didja Know...
The President and Vice President of the United States are NOT limited in the amount of sick leave they get?
(Source: OPM.cov)

What are the northern lights?

"Aurora Borealis." Roll that around your mouth a few times. That's another name for this phenomenon, the faint glow in the sky seen in the far north and south of our planet. (To be fair about it, they are called "Aurora Australis" Down Under but, mates, there are more of us up here than there are of you down there.)

These lights, which at their most dramatic can cover the whole sky, usually vary in intensity and location. They are probably the result of electronic particles thrown off by the sun that bang into our atmosphere. This phenomenon generally coincides with periods of sunspot activity.

Now tell the truth: Did you really think northern lights were a brand of low-tar cigarettes made in one of the Scandinavian countries?

Source: HOW A FLY WALKS UPSIDE DOWN by Martin M. Goldwyn



Didja Know...
Sneezing with your eyes open will NOT cause them to pop out?
(Source: Encarta.com)

Why do we say that something important is not to be sneezed at?

Well you shouldn't cough or spit at it either, but we do make a point of not sneezing at it, so there must be a reason. I'm going to give you that reason; everything else you've heard is a tissue of lies.

Sneezing was once thought to clear the mind. That was one reason why wealthy people used snuff, inducing a sneeze by sniffing the stuff. It got to the point where the idle rich in their idle conversations would frequently force a sneeze to show they were bored. By reverse logic, something important, of substance, became something that was not to be sneezed at.

By the way, if you're one of those people who tend to overdo exercises - jogging thirty miles, for example - be careful about trying to clear your mind by sneezing. You could blow your brains out.

Source: WHY YOU SAY IT by Webb Garrison



Didja Know...
Toll House Cookies, Post-it Notes and Velcro all were discovered by accident? (Source: Encarta.com)

How much of a tree that's been cut for timber actually ends up as usable wood?

The timber industry goes against the grain of cost efficiency. Between the tree and your dining table, most of what was originally standing ends up as waste.

Picture yourself dismembering a carrot for a salad. You begin by lopping off the top, right? Lumberjacks do the same to a tree, removing its top and its branches before they even yell... you know what. By the time what's left is on its way to a mill, as much as half of its original volume is gone.

Another twenty-five percent is left in the sawmill, much of it as sawdust. Hey, they have to have something to put on the barroom floor, don't they? Another eighth is wasted in machining the lumber for the final product. That leaves as little as an eighth of the original tree, a mere chip off the old block.

Source: THE HANDY SCIENCE ANSWER BOOK by The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh



Didja Know...
The famous silhouette of the Coca-Cola bottle was inspired by the coca bean?
(source: Quizland.com)

Why do we say that people who get hung up on minor arguments are "quibbling?"

You'll never guess what profession is the source of this word. Let's see, its members certainly quibble over minor arguments. They often scribble on large leg... uh, yellow pads. And they positively dribble at the mouth over the potential for many billable hours.

Yes, it's our friends the lawyers. So, how do we get from them to the word "quibble?" It's from the Latin, "quibis," a form of the word "qui," or "who." Quibis is the equivalent of "party of the first part." So to quibble, in other words, is to talk like, and therefore to act like he or she whom you should usually try to avoid at all costs. And "all" is what it will probably cost you if you don't.

Source: A BROWSER'S DICTIONARY by John Ciardi



Good as gold

What weighs more than 20 tons and can be said to be worth its weight in gold? The door to the vault of the U. S. gold depository at Ft. Knox, Tennessee.

More babies are born in September than in any other month. Hmmm, let's count back nine months... Oh, my. Happy New Year!!

Source: JUST CURIOUS JEEVES

What is the continental shelf?

As big as it sounds, I doubt it would hold the spillover from what used to be my walk-in closet. Maybe I need the continental shelves.

In the geographical sense, the continental shelf is the underwater ledge that juts out from land at the ocean's edge. Don't confuse this ledge with the shallow end of a swimming pool. It goes down as much as 600 feet. But it goes no deeper than that for quite a distance out from shore, where the real slope starts and the bottom quickly drops to a depth of several miles. The width of this shelf varies from next to nothing to hundreds of miles and represents about 7 percent of all the world's oceans. Fisheries and underwater oil deposits are located on this shelf.

Source: HOW A FLY WALKS UPSIDE DOWN by Martin M. Goldwyn



Didja Know...
The 'Black Death' of the 14th century killed one in three persons in Europe?
(source: The Ultimate Trivia Quiz)

How can you tell a mushroom from a toadstool?

If you eat it and don't have to go to the hospital afterward, it was a mushroom. Toadstools, as I'm sure you know, are quite poisonous.

Toadstools have been so demonized that you might be surprised to learn that they are not some separate kind of plant. If either a toadstool or mushroom is present, there is a fungus among us. They're both wild fungi; mushrooms are simply the edible kind.

But this was supposed to be "how to...," wasn't it? Well in fact, no matter what your counselor told you in camp, you almost surely can't tell them apart -- and shouldn't try -- unless you are an expert on the 38,000 species of mushrooms.

You know what? Go pick blueberries.

Source: FABULOUS FALLACIES by Tad Tuleja


Surfin' synapse, Batman!

Everyone's brain gives off brain waves (you wouldn't expect them to originate in the liver, would you?) These waves vary with the individual, although similarities are often found in the waves generated by members of the same family.

Brain wave surfing has grown in popularity, but some people still dismiss it as nothing but a head trip.

Source: HOW A FLY WALKS UPSIDE DOWN



Didja Know...
Tapping the top of an agitated beverage can with a key, spoon, or other metal object actually DOES reduce your chance of being sprayed?
(source: Quizland.com)

Why don't we use Roman rather than Arabic numerals?

Who said we use "Arabic" numerals? (I know, I just did, but bear with me while I make a point.) Our numbering system is actually Hindu. It passed down to us through the great Arab culture of the Middle Ages.

We use the Hindu-Arabic numbers because they're easier to manipulate. Roman numerals are cumbersome. (Try multiplying XCLXVI by VXLI.). BUT - Sorry, But believe it or not, adding and subtracting can sometimes be easier the Roman way. Say you want to subtract 16 from 77. LXXVII is 77 and XVI, 16. Just erase an X, a V, and an I (16) from the bigger number, leaving LXI, or 61, the correct answer.

The real genius of the Hindu-Arabic number system is the concept of zero. If you look at Western achievements in science and technology over the past century alone, we have really made something out of that nothing.

Source: WHY THINGS ARE & WHY THEY AREN'T by Joel Achenbach




Didja Know...
The original name of 'Dr Pepper' was 'Shoot a Waco?'
(source: Quizland.com)

Why do we call those grotesque figures on medieval buildings gargoyles?

Please don't misunderstand: At one time in the movies, on Broadway and in the stories of Damon Runyon, it was thought that all average Joe's pronounced girls, "goyles." But there's no gender reference here - the word applies to garboys as well as gargoyles.

Gargoyles served a mundane purpose. Water ran off buildings into a gutter and from there flowed out through the gargoyles mouth, which was actually a spout. In Latin, "gutter" is a word for throat. "Garg" is a Latin prefix that also means throat (think of the word "gargle"). Old French for throat was "gargouille," from which we get gargoyle.

So, the most grotesque thing about gargoyles is that they expectorate in public all day. Just like my old Uncle Harry, who was the spitting image of a gargoyle.

Source: THE OXFORD DICTIONARY OF ENGLISH ETYMOLOGY



Didja Know...
The word 'trivia' comes from 'trivium,' the name given to the disciplines that comprise the three lower rungs of the 'seven liberal arts': grammar, rhetoric, and logic?
(Source: Common Knowledge)

Why do people who lose their temper "fly off the handle?"

Right off the bat I should identify the geographical origin of this phrase: 19th century rural America, where the handle in question was likely to be attached to a hammer, hatchet, ax or similarly sharp or heavy-headed instrument.

Tool handles were made from wood, which shrinks over long periods. The shrinking wood loosened the head of the instrument. The first good swing could send that head flying, with serious consequences for anyone standing nearby. Similarly, someone metaphorically flying off the handle is momentarily irrational and perhaps even dangerous to those near them.

It is also said that such people "lose their head," which is the same thing as saying that they fly off the handle. Of course, when that used to happen literally, anyone standing close enough could lose his head, too.

Source: WHY YOU SAY IT by Webb Garrison

Why is there "snow" on the TV screen when a station goes off the air?

Because a station leaving the air lowers the temperature of the picture tube? Just kidding - I'm not that flaky.

Ordinarily a circuit in your TV's amplifier either boosts or diminishes broadcast signals, depending on the strength of the signal. But if there's no signal - as when a station goes off the air -- this amplifier circuit, called an automatic gain control, boosts to the maximum whatever it picks up. In the absence of a broadcast signal, it's picking up and amplifying random static emissions that could come from your pc, vacuum cleaner or other circuits in the TV itself - maybe even from a belch, or the dirty joke your Uncle Harry told at dinner.

Without any signal at all you would see a white screen. The electronic static shows up as moving dark dots which, blended with the white, appear to be snow.

Source: HOW DO ASTRONAUTS SCRATCH AN ITCH? by David Feldman



Didja Know...
There is a town in Idaho called 'Beer Bottle Crossing?'
(Source: UselessKnowledge.com)

Why do we call that suite of playing cards with the cloverleaf symbol, "clubs?"

Ok, here's the real deal:

The English adopted the symbol for this suite from French playing cards. On French cards, the symbol was clearly a cloverleaf, the French word for which was "trefles," meaning "cloverleaf." So, what did the English call it? "Clubs," naturally. In the great tradition of English eccentricity, the people of that green and pleasant land took the translation of the Spanish word for the same suite, "basto," which in English is "clubs," and applied it to the cards that clearly depicted a cloverleaf.

Don't blame the Spanish, whose cards of that suite DID use a drawing of clubs to represent it. Why combine a symbol from one country's cards and the word from another language that describes a different symbol? Need I remind you which country gave us "Alice in Wonderland?" Maybe the Queen of Hearts simply decreed that cloverleaves be clubs.

Source: WHY THINGS ARE & WHY THEY AREN'T by Joel Achenbach



Didja Know...
A baby partridge is called a 'cheeper?'
(Source: UselessKnowledge.com)

What's the difference between an ophthalmologist, an optometrist and an optician?

First, I'll give you two quick tests to winnow out the ophthalmologist. Cover one eye. Which is the only one with an "l" in his title? You got it. Now compare bills from each (uncover that eye). The biggest one also comes from the ophthalmologist, who is an M.D., an eye doctor.

Now let's shop for glasses and we'll separate optometrist from optician. The optometrist is one step down in the medical pecking order from the ophthalmologist. She can also examine your eyes, and in addition make glasses for you if you need them or give you an eyeglass or contact lens prescription that someone else can fill. But she's not an M.D. and can't operate or prescribe medicine.

An optician can make and fit your glasses, but that's all. He's a technician, and can look down only on the receptionist.

Source: THE HANDY SCIENCE ANSWER BOOK compiled by The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh



Didja Know...
Months that begin on a Sunday will always have a Friday the 13th?
(Source: A calendar)

Why do we call that stand that holds an artist's canvass an easel?

What could be more basic to civilization than the beast of burden? (Trust me, I do not digress!) The ox, the donkey and the packhorse expanded our ancestors' ability to do all kinds of work. So basic were these animals that their service was embodied in words and expressions.

The French, for example, called a clothing rack a "chevalet," likening it to a small horse. Similarly, what we call an easel, they call a "chevalet de peintre," or a rack to hold a painting.

The Dutch actually gave us the word "easel." In Holland in the 16th century, when painting hit a peak, they likened the stand that held the canvass to an ass, using their word for that animal, "ezel," to describe it.

Think of it: Rembrandt painted his Self Portrait while supporting it on his ezel. Now that's talent!

Source: A BROWSER'S DICTIONARY by John Ciardi

What happens if you go several nights without sleep?

You would be tired, short-tempered and dead if you kept it up long enough. You would also yawn a lot.

Sleep is just about as basic as food to human beings. Your brain needs it to function. People who haven't slept for several days cannot reason very well or concentrate. They may even hallucinate, become schizophrenic and lose touch with reality. (Drinking a pitcher of Margaritas is a quicker and far more pleasant way to accomplish the same thing.) Sleep deprivation also impairs the brain's ability to connect to the nervous system. Without sleep, you can't walk, see or hear very well.

Dream deprivation, scientists conjecture, may also impair our ability to think straight. Fish, spiders and snakes do not dream. Did you ever meet one with a Ph.D.?

Source: THE WORLD BOOK ENCYCLOPEDIA



Didja Know...
Tug-of-war was a Modern Olympic event until 1920
(Source: The People's Almanac 3)

Is there any difference between a porpoise and a dolphin?

With the international economy fragile, global hotspots threatening to explode and global warming heating up, you're concerned with the difference between a porpoise and a dolphin? Well I must admit this has been on my mind, too. Now maybe we can all achieve some closure on it.

Both are actually small whales. You have met a porpoise if he or she has a round snout and flat teeth. When it comes to associating with people, this mammal is something of a cold fish.

You are dealing with a dolphin if you see more of a beak, nose-wise, and cone-shaped teeth. Dolphins tend to be longer than their more aloof porpoise kin. They are more playful as well as more social than the porpoise, which given its druthers would rather go off by itself and read a good book.

Source: THE HANDY SCIENCE ANSWER BOOK by The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh



Didja Know...
That, due to contintental drift. the Atlantic Ocean is now 120 ft wider than it was at the time of Columbus's first voyage?
(Source: The People's Almanac 3)

Why do we call a computer problem a glitch?

My favorite reference book on such matters, "Small Bytes: An Irreverent Computer Dictionary," succinctly describes a glitch as "a hitch in the glutch between input and output." I couldn't have put it better myself.

Every other word I've heard in conjunction with this unfortunate occurrence has four letters. But they can't match this one's ability to sound just like what it is: a mishap that may well ruin your day but won't spoil your life.

The word glitch is relatively new, a product of the space age and the era of advanced electronics. It comes from the German "glitschen," and via the Yiddish, "glitshen." Both mean, "to slip." We have ingeniously miniaturized electronic circuits, but it looks like the old banana peel has shrunk in proportion to them. No matter how carefully we design electronic products, such as computers, we never get out all the weirdness. They still trip us up.

Source: THE SECRET LIVES OF WORDS by Paul West

How do antihistamines stop sneezing and a runny nose?
Spring really turns me on -- like a faucet. I tear and sneeze. To heck with balmy days: I wish it would freeze.

Pollen and other irritants in the spring air set off this debilitating cycle of activity in the eyes, nose and breathing passage of millions. The invaders provoke a counteraction by the body's "mast" cells, which fight back with various substances, one of which are histamines. Unfortunately, these hista-meanies, while defending us, also run amok, irritating nerve cells and blood vessels, attaching to them and causing the collateral damage of sneezing and tearing.

Antihistamines prevent this attachment by blocking the "receptors" on the nerve and blood vessel cells. The histamines can no longer connect to them.

Imagine histamines in a singles bar trying all of their pick- up lines on these sensitive cells. No dice. Antihistamines have protected them with blindfolds, earplugs and bags over their heads.

Source: THE NEW YORK TIMES

Is there any animal that has four horns?

A few weeks ago there was a truck driver just behind me on the New Jersey Turnpike who might have qualified. But other than that nerve-jangling encounter I don't believe I have ever come across such a beast until now.

Yes, there is such an animal, an antelope, in India. Whoever named the four-horned antelope was not terribly imaginative, but the creature itself seems to have been put together with a good deal of inventiveness. He has the usual two horns between his ears and a smaller pair just over his eyes.

Notice I wrote "he." It's the male who has the four horns, while the female is hornless. Now I ask you, with the male extraordinarily horny but the female not horny at all, isn't it amazing that they ever bring forth new little four horns?

Source: THE HANDY SCIENCE ANSWER BOOK compiled by The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh



Didja Know...
There have been 21 theatrical James Bond films (19 'official'; 2 'unofficial'), while Bond creator Ian Fleming only wrote 14 Bond novels?
(Source: Behind the Curtain)